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19.11.13

Butternut Squash Muffins with frosting… and a bit of crockery..

The other day Wilf and I spent most of the day at the zoo with new friends Lori and F. Wilf zonked out in the pushchair as soon as we left so I took full advantage of that and got some great charity shop browsing in. When we finally arrived home and Wilf woke we decided to bake together.

It was one of those Pinterest perfect moments where everything seemed to be working just right, I had a tidy kitchen and all the ingredients to hand. Wilf stirred whilst I broke eggs and poured flour..The cakes were ready from the oven just as Tom got home so we tested them out frosting free at first, agreed they were yummy and got Wilf ready for bed. Once I had iced the tops and Wilf was sound asleep our friend came round, and I brought out the freshly iced cakes with a pot of tea.Our friend took a bite of his cake..and pulled out part of a handle of coffee cup.The cup's handle had smashed the previous day and I had put to two clean pieces of the handle to the side to glue. Clearly Wilf had thought this would be a great addition to the mixture. Thankfully our friend neither choked nor lost a tooth and thought it was quite funny, I was pretty mortified at the time but it makes for a good story.Now I have 14 cup cakes to eat that I can't offer anyone for fear of miscellaneous items being hidden in them (he was also sitting by the fridge full of magnetic letters..)To make these butternut squash muffins (sans crockery) you will need:

400 g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped

350 g light soft brown sugar

4 large free-range eggs

sea salt

300 g plain flour, unsifted

2 heaped tablespoons baking powder

1 handful walnuts

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

175 ml extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line your muffin tins with cases.Chop the squash into small pieces, boil then mush. Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and stir together until well beaten.

Fill the cases with the cake mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.To make the icing you will need:

450g cream cheese, softened

125g butter, softened

250g sieved icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add all of the above together and stir until it becomes thick.Using a knife spread on top and spindle with a little orange zest if you have it!

This recipe was adapted from a Jamie Olive recipe. When I say adapted I mean pretty much exactly the same but I don't have a food processer and I made my frosting differently. There are some really good kiddo friendly recipes on there actually, wish I may try with Wilf..but I will be keeping a closer eye on random objects being added to the mixture next time!